Inos last Promise
by sparkleshadowcat
Summary: Keep them in line" was Azumas last words to her as he passed away under her blood covered hands. This is the aftermath of team 10 mission and her thoughts about that promise she gave her sensei.


**Hi everyone, This is my first Ino fic who came to me in a dream. I love inspiration! ^^ Enjoy. **

**Disclaimer****: I don´t own Naruto. **

**Warning****: Spoiler from Shippuden episodes! **

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**Ino´s promise.****- Keep them in line.**

Her steps was heavy and slow on the gravel path towards her home. Her right eye was covered by her blonde bang and she just let her arms hang loose by her sides. The only ting she knew was that her first destanation had been her home, but know she wasn´t aware of where she was going.

She had just parted from her broken team by the gate. They had just return to the village after the loss of their sensei. A group of people had met the young ninjas and she had not find the strength to stay.

She still had traces of Asumas blood on her hands and she felt so empty. She would never had thought it would end up like this, Asuma was a strong Jounin of konoha. He was the son to the Third Hokage. Why did this happen?

She knew why....

"I wasn´t strong enough in medical ninjutsu to save you Sensei....forgive me..." she sobbed and closed her blue eyes as the tears started to fall.

_Ino...you are strong willed, dependible and responsible..._

She put her slim hand on her heart as she felt pain from she the effort in trying to sufforcate the sobbs.

_Chouji and Shikamaru..They´re total goof-offs. Keep them in line...._

"I will..." she promised agian.

_...And don´t let Sakura beat you...in ninjutsu or romance. _

She couldn´t hold it anymore, the memories was coming back and she let all her new sorrow leave her yet again. Her hands covered her face as she fell to her knees.

She remembered how Asuma used to scold her for arguring with Chuoji and call him the f-word.* She knew she used to be a little harsh on her teammates. They where not cool and therefore not derseved of her respect. Popularity and beauty was everything to her. And that Sakura her biggest rival, got to team up with Sasuke drove her even more.

Something she realized now was meaningless and stupid.

But Asuma had never judge her over that. He even held that into his final words to her. And now she wanted to live up to them.

She wanted to get stronger and protect her important teammates. The ones she had left...

´Why wasn´t I strong enough to save him?´

'...I was simple minded,´ She thought as she looked over the view.

´I was pushing myself to be better only because I wanted to put Sakura in her place like I did when we where kids. It was so shallow. I was not being strong for the right reason and because of that, Asuma was dead.

"To protect your important people and the king...the future children of the village...that´s something to really be strong for." She said firmly to herself.

She did not want to admit that Sakura was stronger than her, but she couldn´t help but to see that the rival had grown to be a much dependible person. What was the diffrence between them?

It was that Ino had pushed herself for becoming better than Sakura for the rivality sake, and Sakura had pushed her self to become strong for her important people. The word Sakura yelled at her att the Chunnin exam echoed in her mind.

_You are not even a rival!_

But now she was gong to become one. She was going to be Sakuras rival for the right reason. To protect her remaining team and the King. 

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Naruto and Sakura was running pass the ramenshop. The news about Asuma had just reached them and they had met up to find team 10.

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked as she avoided to run into a old woman on the street.

"Absolutily, They should be by the gate right now." Naruto said as jumped over a box with apples and increased his speed. "Hurry!"

They reached the gate and got a shocked reaction. A group of people had already met up with the broken mission team.

Naruto felt his heart skip a beat as he slowly walked over to the dead body of Asuma. The man was bleeding from his stomach of a deadly wound. He didn´t know what to think, just a couple of days ago Asuma was teching him about wind chakra. And now...

His blue eyes fell on the two members of the team that looked most broken down of all. Voices of Sakura talking with Kotetsu and Izumo about how they where going to get the body into the village without drawing to much attention was heard in the background as he approached Chuoji and Shikamaru.

The red dressed shinobi matched his eyes at the moment from all the tears. Naruto put his hand on his comrades shoulder. "Im so sorry."

Chuoji nodded gratefully, not trusting his voice to speak.

The Jinchuriki understood and turned to the raven member of the team who looked at his fallen sensei. He too looked in bad shape too but he was fine enough to stand by himself so he didn´t want to comment on it.

"Shikamaru..."

"I know." Was the answer to the statement. Shikamaru felt that he wanted to leave but he had to take responsibility for his team first. He started to walk pass them but not without stopping and put a hand on Narutos shoulder first. "I know...thanks." he said again and continued.

"Sakura." He said as he approached the medic ninja with the other two behind him. "I sent Ino home, but I know she is walking around. She needs you right now...please." he said as he closed his eyes to avoid eyecontact with her.

"Im going then. Im so sorry Shikamaru. Choiji." She said and nodded to Naruto who nodded back before she left.

She had soon been running for thirty minutes as she stopped to think about the places where her childhood friend could be. The village was very big when you where looking for one singel person. She knew she had to be there for Ino now, the wounds on Asumas body had even been to hard for herself to heal so she had to make sure that Ino didn´t blame herself.

She still remembered the time when Tsunade told her the harsh reality rules of a medic ninja. That you wouldn´t be able to save everyone no matter how strong you become. And that was the first rule to accept. Tsunade herself had lost both her lover Dan and little brother Nawaki. Sakura had always found it hard to think about it. She couldn´t see herself being in that situation with Naruto, Kakashi or Sai. And now it had happend to Ino. It made the ninja life so much more real in front of her eyes right now.

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The wind was cold against her bare skin. Even though she had important thoughts right now, sorrow was still keeping her from piece and determination.

_Chouji and Shikamaru..They´re total goof-offs. Keep them in line...._

´ I can´t feel sorry anymore. The team need to be strong. We need eachother. As equal shinobis of team Asuma.

"Arigatou, sensei."

She slowly put her foot on the ground and got up from her postition. She could do it. She was standing on the same lonly path as her teammates right now and she was going to be strong for them. She had promised. Soon she felt the precense of her rival behind her.

Sakura knew the blonde had noticed her so she just waited for the other to start talking. The retiring sun was giving out red light around the purple dressed kunoichi. The wind made her beautyful blonde hair sway gracefully in her high ponytail.

"I lost him..." Sakura felt the sad tone go into her chest. It wasn´t easy for her to find the right words, what should you say to a person who has lost someone like that. There is no words that can help.

"..Hai."

The blonde felt her lip started to shake but she held her feeling back. She needed to get this out now.

"But you still have Chuoji and Shikamaru." Typical Sakura to find something good to say even though she was even a bigger crybaby than Ino.

She smiled sadly at the comment and nodded. "I will keep them in line." She murmured as she repeated the promise to her sensei once again as she closed her eyes. Soon she fixed her broken pose and made herself look really tall infront of the other.

"Do you know what my last promise to Asuma-sensei was?" he whispered.

Sakura could see something was diffrent with her friend. What was she thinking about?

"No."

The memories was coming back to her and instead of sorrow she felt the will of fire burn inside of her chest. She had made a promise and she was going to hold it no matter what.

When she opened them she had new eyes with determination and hope for the future. Like a new person she turned to her long life rival who was taken back by the energi.

"Sakura, Im not going to lose to you anymore." She said in a steady tone.

"Im going to get stronger for the right reason."

Sakura looked at her confused but slowly understood what she ment. Best friends but Rivals. Now she knew that Ino was going to be okay. With her sweet smile she nodded that she was taking up on the challange.

Ino smiled back and turned to the sunset where she could see her Sensei´s smile. Yes, she was going to be okay. With Shikamaru and Choji they would make a team in Azuma-senseis name that would make him proud.

**The End.**

*whisper* Fat... *look around for chouji.*

I didn´t want to write it if he is reading this! ^^

Did it turn out okay? My most important rule was to keep Ino in character. Did I do a good job? Please tell me what you think!


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